Hand trowels are commonly used in the building and do-it-yourself industry to distribute spreadable material (e.g., adhesives, plaster, grout, fillers or the like) along a work surface (wooden or cement subfloors, walls, etc.) A typical trowel is of a single, rectangular plate-like configuration having at least one notched edge in the form of a square or saw-tooth configuration. Often these trowels include only one notched side edge sized and selected for their particular thickness of spread. Recently, however, trowels have been manufactured to include two different sides with different sized notching. Notches having a larger distance between them create a thicker layer of material, and those having a smaller distance between the notches spread thinner layers of material.
For example, a person using a conventional trowel for applying tile, brick, block or the like, uses it to scoop out the necessary amount of adhesive material onto the work surface. The user then holds the trowel such that the notched side edge of the trowel makes adequate contact with the adhesive and pulls the notched edge along the adhesive to create the grooves (or ridges) in the adhesive. The notch's size and shape determines the depth of the resulting ridges and should be appropriate to the type and size of the tile being installed. Generally, for tiles of less than 10 in., one would use notches with dimensions of ¼×¼ in.; for tiles between 10 and 14 in., use ⅜ in. ×¼ in. trowel; and for tiles larger than 14 in. use a ½×½ in. trowel. Previously, should a tiler need to adjust the depth or shape of the resulting grooves in the adhesive, the user would need to employ a second trowel having the desired notch characteristics (e.g., depth or shape). The user is unable to adjust the trowel notch configuration to vary the resulting depth of the grooves in the spreadable material.
When trying to apply the spreadable material into internal corner joints defined by two planar surfaces meeting at a fixed angle, the user has been limited to pre-manufactured right- or left-handed trowels having two adjacent notched edges. Because of the difficulty of positioning two adjacent notched edges in corresponding internal corners, the worker will often have to employ two separate trowels, (i.e., a left-handed trowel and right-handed trowel) each of which are notched at oppositely, adjacent edges to access the corresponding internal corners of the structure.
It has been proposed to provide trowel assemblies comprising two removable and interchangeable plate-like members, one plate having at least one threaded post and the other plate having at least one corresponding slot for slidably receiving the post, wherein the two plates are held stationary relative to each other at the desired position using a wing-nut that engages the threaded post. However, unlike the instant invention which utilizes quick release cam clamps that engage threaded or non-threaded posts, the wing-nut type attachments of the prior art are time consuming to attach, and the threads often become fouled with the material being applied. Thereby, making the wing-nut difficult to rotate about the threads. In addition, during the cleaning process the plate-like members of the assembly must be completely disassembled which can lead to the trowel assembly components (e.g., wing nuts, plates) becoming lost or misplaced.
The instant invention allows the user to modify the notch configuration such that the depth of material being applied can be varied over a wide range until the desired depth is attained. The user is able to employ either the notches formed on the first or second plate-like members alone or in overlapping combination to obtain different groove configurations. The present trowel assembly also allows the user to readily expose the appropriate notched edges of adjacent sides of the trowel assembly to provide a right- or left-handed configuration using a single trowel. In addition, the plates and the quick release cam clamp of the assembly remain connected yet separable so as to allow for easy cleaning therebetween without the possibility of one of the plate-like members becoming lost or misplaced.